The Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth and its sequel were two excellent RTS games that did superb justice to some of the epic battles seen in the three films. If you aren’t too keen on strategy games, however, and would rather be running around in the thick of the action then there was the two third-person perspective games that gave you a starring role in some of the films biggest set pieces. While these two games were by no means awful they weren’t exactly brilliant either. Although it somewhat felt like you were part of an epic battle the games themselves were far too linear and really nothing more than your average hack-and-slash – like Dynasty Warriors with a splash of LotR paint and some elves thrown in for good measure. Well, just when you thought they’d squeezed the last out of the franchise another game promising epic battles comes along.

The Lord of the Rings: Conquest will probably be instantly familiar to anyone who’s played the Star Wars: Battlefront games. Basically you fight in ‘huge’ battles where your task is to secure and hold a series of objectives. To accomplish these objectives you’re able to pick from four classes – Mage, Scout, Archer, and Warrior – which each have their own unique strengths and abilities. Heroes can also be unlocked; allowing you to play as recognisable characters from the films and books. However, as already noted, the game is supposed to give you a sense that you’re part of something bigger. Pandemic Studios (the games developer) hope to accomplish this by allowing 150 units on screen, 16 player online battles and split-screen/online co-op modes for those who want to experience it with friends.

For any fan of LotR – like myself – the ability to experience the amazing battles depicted in the books and films is enough to make you start counting down the days to release. If I went off game descriptions alone I may just plonk down the cash for this on day one but being the hungry-for-more gamer I am, looking at videos and screenshots has somewhat lessened any excitement. The video below shows a few scenes from the game and while it looks pretty nice there’s one niggling question. If the battles are so epic then, well, where the hell is everyone? For a battlefield it looks pretty darn empty to me. Where are the promised 150 units on screen? Plus, why does the archer seem to fire 500 arrows a minute? Maybe I’m just over-analysing the whole thing.

I guess we’ll have to wait and see if LotR: Conquest lives up to the hype that takes place in all product press releases. In this online age it’s the multiplayer where the real verdict will be leveled, which means that if it’s anything like Star Wars: Battlefront then we may just have a winner yet. Hopefully they’ll be less Frodo, and I doubt many people would disagree with me on that one.

The Lord of the Rings: Conquest (official site)